This work currently focuses on the following major areas: The molecular biology of thalassemia, the antenatal diagnosis of the hemoglobinopathies and the influence of cyanate on sickling. The work on the molecular biology of thalassemia has focused on two major areas. First we have examined the translational control of hemoglobin synthesis in the thalassemic bone marrow and have found that the function of the beta messenger RNA in beta thalassemia that is attached to polyribosomes is normal. A second area of critical importance is the fingerprinting of messenger RNA in the thalassemia syndromes. In our work on sickling we have observed that ATP plays a critical role in the generation of irreversibly sickled cells and have also shown that both cyanate and DPG have oxygen dependent and independent effects on the rate of sickling. In our work on antenatal diagnosis of the hemoglobinopathies we have been able to construct a nomogram of beta and gamma synthesis during the first trimester and have also begun to work on the acquisition of fetal blood samples from chorionic plate vessels using a Dionics Fetoscope of 2.5 mm maximum diameter.